Webco Alaska Increases Efficiency with Sage X3
Innovation ERP Helps Webco Alaska Increase Efficiency in a Tourist-Driven Economy with Sage X3

Webco Alaska has succeeded in lowering labor costs, increasing productivity, and putting real-time data in the hands of salespeople, all of which are growth drivers for national and regional distributors – especially those in fluctuating economies.  They accomplished this by implementing Sage X3 under the expert guidance of Innovation ERP.

Founded in 1974, Webco Alaska, a wholesale distributor of non-durable goods has been serving big box and medium-to-small retail brands within Alaska for over 40 years. Serving the communities driven by summer tourism brings added considerations: increases in demand, additional products to stock, and tourist spending that can make or break a retailer’s success. 

As their existing financial management solution neared its end-of-life, Webco Alaska grew increasingly reliant on manual processes and historical data to manage summertime inventory levels. Unfortunately, this look-back approach caused challenges. Mainly, Webco was perpetually under-stocked at the beginning of summer and overstocked at the end. With this cumbersome logistical situation that proved inaccurate and costly, it was time for a change. 

“As systems reached life expectancy, we leaned more heavily on temporary platform fixes alongside specialized knowledge that only a select few employees possessed within our workflows,” explained operations leader, David Foger. In 2018, the sum of these challenges became a liability for growth and the leadership team began looking for a new solution.

Challenge:   
  • Lack of visibility to consolidated data across the operation limited Webco’s ability to forecast inventory needs and otherwise manage the business.
  • Labor-intensive warehouse operations were costly and did not scale to meet seasonal needs.
  • dependence on specialized knowledge needed to perform each function left Webco vulnerable and with low organizational agility.
  • The incumbent business management system was facing its end of life.
Solution:
  • Sage X3  
  • Sage Enterprise Intelligence 
Results:
  • Real-time data improved forecasting capability and boosted sales
  • Accurate pick-tickets increased warehouse efficiency
  • Customizable landing pages reduced dependency on specialized knowledge and increased organizational resilience
  • Warehouse staff overtime has been reduced by 85%
  • Finance department time spent on operational functions has been reduced by 50%
“Since deploying Sage X3, I’ve cut my time spent on operations from 60 hour per week to 30. Now, I can focus on the future; optimizing business processes that make us more efficient across the organization.” – David Foger, Operational Account Executive
Time Saved is Money Earned

The productivity features built into the Sage X3 platform addressed Webco Alaska’s biggest concern; ensuring every employee would be enabled and supported to drive their business forward. 

The Sage X3 allocations feature proved instrumental in controlling the appearance of out-of-stock items on warehouse pick-tickets. This simple addition to warehouse protocol eliminated significant amounts of time wasted searching for items that weren’t available. In addition, the customizable FAQs and support on workflow landing pages provided warehouse and field employees with real-time answers that increased productivity and sales cycles. 

The ease of working with Sage X3’s graphical and SQL queries significantly reduced dependency on outside consultants for platform management and band-aid fixes. “Our data is in our hands now more than ever,” David explained. Equally important, the forecasting components allow for better inventory management in a wildly fluctuating, seasonal market. 

Timesavers associated with Sage X3 have proven exponentially beneficial across the entire Webco Alaska organization: 

  • Customer shipping requirements stored within Sage X3 eliminates guesswork and extra labor spent on repacking
  • Hiring extra help during the tourist season is no longer necessary 
  • Employees who lost vacation time for fear an absence would result in lost business are taking their well-earned time off 
  • Overtime has been reduced from 40+ hours per week to less than five
  • Instructional landing pages shortened the new hire learning curve 

At Innovation ERP, we help you build custom solutions to support your thriving business. To learn more about leveraging Sage X3 to drive efficiency and profitability for your business, visit our contact page or call us at 760-231-6724